Phillies tenure capped Gillick’s Hall of Fame resume

View full sizeAssociated Press photoRoberto Alomar, left, Bert Blyleven, center, and Pat Gillick pose together after a news conference in Cooperstown, N.Y., on Saturday, July 23, 2011. All three will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Pat Gillick spent only three years as the general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, but his tenure here secured his spot in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The man who built the Toronto Blue Jays into World Series champions in 1992 and 1993, and put together playoff teams in Baltimore and Seattle capped his brilliant career when he crafted the 2008 World Series champions.

Gillick, who will be inducted in Cooperstown today, took over a team before the 2006 season that perennially fell short and re-shaped the nucleus. The Phillies went to the playoffs for the first time since 1993 in 2007, and won the World Series a year later — just the organization’s second title in a long and often tortured history.

“Absolutely,” said Gilllick when asked if he believed the 2008 title ensured his induction. “People have short memories. You win a World Series (15) years ago, and then it comes to 2008 and you win it again, it validates everything you did before. People realize you still know how to go about doing it.”

While his successor and protégé, Ruben Amaro Jr., has adeptly consummated several high-profile deals, some of Gillick’s biggest moves in Philadelphia were more subtle.

He acquired Joe Blanton in July 2008 to plug a hole in the starting rotation when much of the trade focus was on Blanton’s Oakland teammate, Rich Harden. Gillick added a vital left-handed reliever in Scott Eyre, who had been cut loose by the Cubs mid-season, and traded for veteran bench player Matt Stairs in late August.

Blanton went 4-0 in the regular season and 2-0 in the playoffs in 2008. Eyre was 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA for the Phillies down the stretch, and Stairs hit the series-turning home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series.

“Like most people, I think Pat’s a genius,” said Phillies reliever Brad Lidge, who was acquired in a trade with the Astros before the 2008 season. “He sees how guys will fit in that aren’t the blockbuster guys. That’s really hard to do.

“Everybody knows the huge guys on the market will be good for a team, but those guys are few and far between. The other guys build the championship team, that’s what he’s got an eye for and that separates him. That’s where his genius lies.”

Lidge was an on-again, off-again closer in Houston when Gillick salvaged him. The right-hander saved all 48 chances — including playoffs — in 2008 and clinched the final game of the World Series.

Though Lidge has been inconsistent and often injured the last three years, the Phillies wouldn’t have even made the playoffs without him in 2008.

“Obviously when a guy puts confidence in you, it takes it to another level my respect for him,” said Lidge. “He appreciated what I was capable of doing and it’s cool to be associated with Pat in that way. All of us on the 2008 team feel that way. A lot of us, our former teams had given up on.”

Though Gillick once orchestrated one of the bigger blockbuster trades in history with Toronto — trading Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez to San Diego for Joe Carter and fellow 2011 Hall inductee Robby Alomar — he admits his approach was always of a more cautious nature.

“My label in Toronto was ‘Stand Pat’ and I think that was a fair assessment,” said Gillick. “I tried to be patient, but if a trade came along, big or small, that I thought should be made I would make it.”

One of Gillick’s first moves with the Phillies was to trade veteran Jim Thome to open up first base for Ryan Howard, who won the National League MVP award in 2006 and has become one of the faces of the franchise.

Gillick acquired gritty center fielder Aaron Rowand and a future all-star pitcher in Gio Gonzalez from the White Sox for Thome — though later dealt Gonzalez in an unfortunate trade for Freddy Garcia, who won one game with the Phillies and spent most of his lone season here on the disabled list.

Gillick, who is still involved with the club as a scout and advisor, began reshaping the Phillies midway through the 2006 season when they were mired below .500 and underachieving. The general manager shipped long-time right fielder Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle to the New York Yankees for four prospects.

Abreu, still active with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, has totaled 821 hits since leaving Philadelphia. Meanwhile, the four players the Phillies acquired played a total of 23 games for the team — all by reliever Matt Smith.

Still, the deal started a culture change in Philadelphia in which Howard, Chase Utley, and Shane Victorino (who took over right field) helped lead the club into the future.

“From a talent standpoint, it was the wrong decision because Abreu is still playing well,” said Gillick. “But I thought he set the tone for the club and he’s not really a high-energy player. I thought I had to change the energy level, and when we made that trade guys like Utley, (Jimmy) Rollins and Victorino, their personalities energized the club.”

Gillick declared a rebuilding process after the trade, saying the team wouldn’t be ready to contend until 2008, but the deal sparked a winning streak and a few weeks later Gillick acquired pitcher Jamie Moyer for the stretch run. While the Phillies just missed the playoffs in 2006, they won the division the next year and Moyer had the most overall wins on the 2007 and 2008 teams — clinching the division title both seasons.

“(Gillick) just looked at it as a changing of the guard and pushed us up to the forefront,” said Howard of the Abreu trade. “Jimmy and Pat Burrell had been two of the longest tenured guys at that point. Chase and I followed in and did what we needed to do to play our parts.

“(Gillick) just added the pieces that were needed. Everywhere he’s gone, he’s won. There’s a method to his madness and he brought that madness to Philly. He added a little more fuel to the fire and a couple key pieces we needed to get over the top.”

The 73-year-old Gillick said he wouldn’t mind being president of a team, but is done remaking clubs into winners as a GM. The 2008 title became his crowning achievement.

“To go into the Hall of Fame as a general manager, I’d say that caps it off,” he said.